Even More Guns, Germs, and Steel

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   Today in class, we continued to watch the Guns, Germs, and Steel video in class and take notes. We continued learning about domesticated animals/ the 14 animals that were domesticated at the time. Then, we proceeded to learn about the Fertile Crescent, which is located in the Middle East. The Fertile Crescent was "geographically blessed", meaning that animals native to this land were perfect for domestication and the crops there were plentiful/nutritious. We also learned that Papa New Guinea was not nearly as geographically lucky as the Middle East. Their crops couldn't last long and were not nutritious. They also did not have animals to domesticate (other than pigs, which couldn't do much at all). The video ended with Jared Diamond's theory of geographical luck, and how animals and little pieces of wheat can affect the outcome of different nations in the world. The full video had two other parts we could watch, but we stopped here (finishing with part 1 only). After we finished the video, Mr. Schick went to the CIA World Factbook, and pulled up the page on Papa New Guinea. We realized, after browsing this page, that not all of New Guinea is as underdeveloped as the highlands (shown in the video). Some parts are doing well, but compared to other countries, Papa New Guinea is not a very advanced civilization.

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